MORE drugstores and pharmacies will turn into vaccination sites by the middle of February as the national government expands the “Resbakuna sa Botika” program, the Department of Health said yesterday.
In a televised public briefing, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said they are expecting to expand the program gradually with the goal of making COVID-19 booster shots more accessible.
The government rolled out the new vaccination strategy yesterday, with five pharmacies in the National Capital Region (NCR) participating.
Those which participated in the Thursday pilot run were Generika Drugstore in Signal Village, Taguig City; Mercury Drug Manila Malate Branch along Quirino Avenue corner Leon Guinto in Manila; Southstar Drug SSD Marikina Branch located Concepcion Uno, Marikina City; The Generics Pharmacy in Sun Valley, Parañaque City; and Watsons SM Supercenter Pasig in Ortigas, Pasig City.
“After this one-week pilot run, it will then be NCR-wide. Then, probably by second or third week of February, we can go to other regions,” said Cabotaje.
“It will be based on our readiness assessment of the drugstores. We will tap those that are willing and ready,” she added.
The head of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) said they want to tap more drugstores to further decentralize the vaccination activities.
“In the long run, if everything goes well, these extra vaccination sites and extra hands will be great help,” said Cabotaje.
Still, the health official stressed that vaccination activities will remain in existing inoculation sites of the local government units.
“They will be continuous. Those in pharmacies will just be in support,” said Cabotaje.
According to Cabotaje, they are looking at giving booster shots to a total of 500 people for the pilot run in the five pharmacies.
She also said that the booster doses in pharmacies will initially involve Sinovac and AstraZeneca jabs only.
“After Phase 1 or 2, we will see if we can make available the other brands, like Pfizer or Moderna, which require more sensitive handling,” Cabotaje said.
In a related development, Cabotaje called on those vaccinated with Sinopharm for their primary series to wait for the recommendation of vaccine experts on which brand is advisable for them as boosters.
Cabotaje said there is still no available recommendations on which brand may be used for Sinopharm vaccinees.
“The experts have not come out with a recommended booster shot, because the data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration are lacking,” she said.
Meanwhile, presidential adviser for COVID-19 response Vince Dizon said children aged between three to 11 may soon be vaccinated using the current supply of Sinovac vaccine that is in stock and available in the country once the emergency use authority (EUA) for the vaccine brand is amended and approved by the FDA.
FDA said Sinovac applied for two EUA amendments to cover the pediatric vaccines for three to 17 years old and another for 12 to 17 years old. The application is still being reviewed.
At present, only Pfizer had been issued an EUA for the children’s formulation.
The first batch of 780,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines for the five and 11 years old, are set to be delivered on January 31 followed by a second batch of 1.632 million doses on February 7.
Dizon said they expect Pfizer to make a delivery at least every two weeks as part of the 7.5 million doses of children formulation vaccine allotted for the first quarter. Another 7.5 million, which is part of the 15 million doses of children vaccines procured by the government from Pfizer, will be delivered in the second quarter of the year. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
